Friday, May 1, 2015

Denier weirdness: Conspiracy theories get odder by the day at WUWT

Anthony Watts has come up with yet another conspiracy theory. It's full of holes, but what do science deniers care, those who can see the holes, that is. In fact it's got so many holes that it vanishes as soon as you touch it - it disintegrates into nothingness. Conspiracy theorists are willing to accept any nonsense. I haven't seen a sillier article or a sillier thread at WUWT in at least a few hours.

If you have a few minutes to waste, read on. Otherwise, wait for me to write about something vaguely sane.

This latest theory is that in the USA, scientists are getting paid to do something or other. Every US government at least since the mid-1950s has been only giving grants to climate scientists who are willing to blame climate change on human activity. (I chose the mid-1950s because of Gilbert Plass, who published an important paper in 1956, sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.)

Here are the Presidents under whose reign grants were handed to climate scientists - five Democrats and six Republicans - all of whom helped perpetrate the hoax that humans are causing global warming:

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican

John F. Kennedy, Democrat

Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat

Richard M. Nixon, Republican

Gerald Ford, Republican

Jimmy Carter, Democrat

Ronald Reagan, Republican

George Bush, Republican

Bill Clinton, Democrat

George W. Bush, Republican

Barack Obama, Democrat

Each of those presidents and elected US politicians since the mid-1950s, saw that blaming climate change on human activity would be a sure-fire vote-winner. It would mean they all would be hailed by the common folk as heroes, and the world would be theirs. Yeah, right!

If you don't believe that anyone could really come up with such a wacky idea, here is the latest conspiracy theory - live from WUWT:

In today’s climate science, merit criteria have been replaced by a spoils system of giving grants to those loyal to the political doctrine of Climate Change caused by anthropogenic carbon dioxide.

The US government claim is that $36B has been spent on climate research. The terms of the resulting grants assured that their recipients would support the entirely political doctrine of anthropogenic origins of climate change.

This has particularly evil implications such as “scientific truth can be sold to the highest bidder.”

If you read the "thoughts" Anthony's latest article has created, you'll wonder if you are in the real world or in some sort of distorted universe populated by demented drunkards. The rationale goes something like this:

Every government, therefore every political party, therefore the majority of politicians elected by the people, therefore the majority of people (only in the USA mind you) have always aspired to blaming greenhouse warming on human activity. Nope - that line of reasoning breaks down even before you get to the second word.

The private sector is chomping at the bit to fund science, particularly climate science, but can't do so? Won't do so? No scientist will work for the private sector? Okay, we'll give that one a miss, too. I cannot find the rationale behind this sliver of a WUWT thought.

How about this one. There is ample evidence from nature that humans aren't causing global warming. It's just that no-one has been able to produce it? Game enough to produce it? Hasn't figured it out yet? Hmmm...that line of thinking also peters out before it gets onto the starting block.

From the WUWT comments

Here you go. I dare you to find any meaning in the following comments. Has WUWT really sunk to this level of nonsensical rambling? Seems so.

April 29, 2015 at 7:16 pm
One can eat pig, whereas politicians are too vile in smell and texture to even consider eating them.

jlurtz says that it's solar scientists who caused the "CO2 scam":

April 29, 2015 at 3:36 pm
Unfortunately, they control the data/satellites etc. Therefore, politicians control the “scientists” {I use the word loosely, since the “scientists” have sold out to the system}. The worst are the “solar scientists” they have all the answers! BUT, they can’t predict a solar cycle! This is what caused the CO2 scam! The “solars” said the Sun is a constant. But, wait, it isn’t: it is now a variable star.

William Astley

April 29, 2015 at 5:37 pm
Billions of dollars pushing an incorrect scientific paradigm is one of the many reasons why we are deep in the climate change twilight zone.
Reality does not change in proportion to the number of people who repeat or believe in their silly mantra.
It is impossible at this time to have a serious discussion as to what is going to happen next to the sun and to the earth.
I am curious as to the order and ramp time of the imminent anomalies. Will atmospheric CO2 fall before or after the anomalously significant drop in planetary temperature? Will the anomalous changes happening in time to affect the presidential election? How will the IPCC backtrack? How will the media and the public respond to the change? When will there be public panic?

Alx adds his profound thought, for anyone who cares (dares) to try to follow it:

April 29, 2015 at 5:53 pm
Science can seek to pursue greater understanding of our world using curiosity and scientific integrity or it dump the curiosity and integrity, and then bend over for politics in exchange for fame and fortune.

Lawrie Ayres lacks the wit or wisdom to question his underlying premise. Unlike most of the other people's "thoughts", at least he can write a proper sentence structure, even though his reasoning is lacking:

April 29, 2015 at 6:16 pm
I can understand less than competent climate scientists bowing to whatever agency is signing their cheque since other employment is out of the question. What I don’t understand are people who are not beholding to those agencies still parroting belief in a hypothesis that has been thoroughly disproved by nature itself. What drives otherwise intelligent people to be so gullible? We need their names because I have some swampland for sale.

J. Philip Peterson wants much worse than Sandy to persuade him of something or the other:

April 29, 2015 at 8:39 pm
What is really bad now, is that if a big storm (hurricane) hits the US east coast with damage… they are back on track and it is because of climate change ie. CO2 etc. etc. etc….
After all Superstorm Sandy wasn’t even a hurricane when it hit NJ/NYC…but they keep referring to it.

Bruce Cobb

April 30, 2015 at 3:42 am
Climatism is an industry whose product is lies dressed up as science. Produce and you get paid. Don’t produce, and you won’t. It’s as simple as that. Science for sale, or climate whoremongering.

April 30, 2015 at 5:36 am
No real, honest science can come from government funded and controlled science. We saw horrors in “science” in the old USSR, and also in middle ages Europe when the Roman Catholic Church controlled science.
Grant chasing is an abomination and helps lead to the horror that is modern government controlled medical science as well as government controlled climate science.

10 comments:

Here you go. I dare you to find any meaning in the following comments. Has WUWT really sunk to this level of nonsensical rambling? Seems so.

This reminds me of the scene from the TV series "The West Wing" when one of the characters (a top presidential aide) went to a blog to try to correct what people were saying about him there. Someone else in the office was trying to dissuade him from that by saying: "These are people who haven't taken their medication."-- Dennis

This type of collective self-reinforcing directed pathology will constitute a rich vein for psychologists to mine in future. Unfortunately we're stuck with it and its partially successful delaying tactics _now_.

Instead of commenting as "Anonymous", please comment using "Name/URL" and your name, initials or pseudonym or whatever. You can leave the "URL" box blank. This isn't mandatory. You can also sign in using your Google ID, Wordpress ID etc as indicated. NOTE: Some Wordpress users are having trouble signing in. If that's you, try signing in using Name/URL or OpenID. Details here.

New Look

G'day. HotWhopper is having a facelift. Do let me know if you find anything missing or broken.

When you read older articles on a desktop or notebook, you may find the sidebar moves down the page, instead of being on the side. That can happen with some older articles if your browser is not the full width of your computer screen. I am not planning to check every previous post, so if you come across something particularly annoying, send me an email and I'll fix it. Or you can add your thoughts to this feedback article.

You can use the menu up top to get to the blogroll or whatever it is you might be looking for on the sidebar.

When moderation shows as ON, there may be a short or occasionally longer delay before comments appear. When moderation is OFF, comments will appear as soon as they are posted.

All you need to know about WUWT

WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary, Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase:

Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure.

Definition of Denier (Oxford): A person who denies something, especially someone who refuses to admit the truth of a concept or proposition that is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence.
‘a prominent denier of global warming’
‘a climate change denier’

Alternative definition: A former French coin, equal to one twelfth of a Sou, which was withdrawn in the 19th century. Oxford. (The denier has since resurfaced with reduced value.)